[Ability of smelling is reduced reversibly by acute smoking and permanently by chronic smoking]. / Riechsinn wird durch akutes Rauchen reversibel und durch chronisches Rauchen dauerhaft geschädigt.

BACKGROUND: Whether smoking affects the sense of smell is in debate. To exclude a bias by presbyosmia, we analyzed the influence of acute and chronic smoking on the ability to smell in young adults. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 40 smokers (23 women, 17 men) aged between 18-34 years were included. They smoked in average 19.6 cigarettes per day and had an average of 7.96 pack years (minimum: 2.5; maximum: 25). The sense of smell was evaluated using the Sniffin' sticks© olfactory test-battery in 215 min 5 times. The impact of a 2 h controlled abstinence time and subsequent smoking of a cigarette were measured. 43 never smokers were tested as control group. RESULTS: Smoking had a 2-fold impact on the sense of smell: there was a reversible impairment after acute smoking and a permanent reduction of olfaction in relation to the pack years. In summary, the young smokers remained normosmic, although they showed significantly worse test results compared to the group of never smokers. The olfactory capacity of different groups of smokers differed up to maximum of 4.5 TDI points (sum of olfactory threshold-, discrimination- and identification-score). CONCLUSIONS: The damage caused by smoking seems to be settled in the border area between norm- and hyposmia. In case of an expert opinion the patient should be asked for the pack years and should keep 2 h controlled smoking abstinence prior to olfactory testing.

Impact of psychotherapeutic support on gastrointestinal cancer patients undergoing surgery: survival results of a trial.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The impact of psychotherapeutic support on survival time in patients with gastrointestinal cancer undergoing surgery was studied. METHODOLOGY: A randomized controlled trial was conducted in cooperation with the Departments of General Surgery and Medical Psychology, University Hospital of Hamburg, Germany. Two hundred and seventy-one consenting patients with a preliminary diagnosis of cancer of the esophagus, stomach, liver/gallbladder, pancreas or colon/rectum were stratified by gender and randomly assigned to a control group that received standard care, as provided on the surgical wards, or to an experimental group that received formal psychotherapeutic support in addition to routine care during the hospital stay. Patients in both groups completed the EORTC-Quality of Life questionnaire pre-operatively, post-operatively, and at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months following surgery. Date of death, if applicable, was also recorded. Unadjusted and adjusted survival analyses were performed. RESULTS: Kaplan-Meier survival curves demonstrated better survival for the experimental group than for the control group. The unadjusted significance level for group differences was p = 0.002 for survival up to 2 years. Cox regression models that took TNM Staging or the Residual Tumor Classification into account also found significant differences at the 2-year follow-up. Secondary analyses found that most of the differences in favor of the experimental group occurred in females and in patients with stomach, pancreatic, primary liver or colorectal cancer. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study indicate that patients with gastrointestinal cancer, particularly those who are female and those who undergo surgery for stomach, pancreatic, primary liver or colorectal cancer, benefit from a formal program of psychotherapeutic support in terms of survival.

Note: external multipass optical trap for counterpropagating pulsed laser applications.

Pulses from a 12 mJ, frequency doubled, 5 ns FWHM, pulsed Nd:YAG laser were split and injected into opposing sides of a symmetric 2.44 m (96 in.) optical ring trap. Using a Pockels cell, the counterpropagating pulses were "locked" into the trap for ≥50 round trips. This optical trap has potential applications ranging from established cavity processes, e.g., laser-based absorption spectroscopy and x-ray production, to new processes such as non-resonant optical lattice gas heating and time-resolved coherent Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering diagnostic studies.

[Assessment of motivational changes in tinnitus sufferers. A study of the transtheoretical model]. / Erfassung der Veränderungsmotivation bei Tinnituspatienten. Eine Studie zum transtheoretischen Modell.

OBJECTIVES: Cognitive-behavioural treatment of chronic tinnitus needs active cooperation and motivation in patients. The transtheoretical model (TTM) defines the behavioural change using six different stages of change (SoC). In this study, we examined SoC in patients with tinnitus via a new self-rating instrument. SAMPLE AND METHODS: An item-pool, consisting of 48 questions, was administered to 125 tinnitus sufferers in a cross-sectional study. In addition to data on tinnitus history, the tinnitus strain (THI, German: TB-12), scores of anxiety and depression (HADS-D), and life quality (SF-12) were assessed. RESULTS: Four SoC could be identified empirically: (1) precontemplation, (2) contemplation/preparation, (3) action/maintenance, and (4) termination. Associations of the SoC with socio-demographic and tinnitus related data, as well as with the instruments applied, conformed with the theory. CONCLUSIONS: The results confirm the transfer of SoC theory to patients with tinnitus.